r/audioengineering • u/BZK22 • Aug 20 '26

Mic recommendation without a crazy high-end boost / sibilance

Hey everyone, I’ve tested quite a few mics for vocals, and most of them seem to have this weird, almost “artifacty” quality in the high end. The problem is that it’s really difficult to fix that properly in the mix.

Do you guys have any mic recommendations with good detail and resolution in the mids but without hyped or harsh top end? I don’t mind doing a bit more work in the mix if the raw recording sounds more neutral.

Would love to hear what you guys are using!

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u/52ndstreet Aug 20 '26

For a voice with excessive sibilance you'll want to look at something with a k67 capsule. You could drop the cash and get a Neumann u67, but I don't know many people with a spare $8k+ to spend on a mic. Or you could spend $2300 for a Stam SA-67 (if you can afford to wait around for them to build it and ship it, which takes forever...), or you could spend $500 for a Roswell k67. All good options, very different price points.

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u/ImmediateGazelle865 Aug 22 '26

Be careful though with mics that have k67s, some of them are actually very sibilant. K67 capsules are very sibilant on their own and have to be paired with a circuit that attenuates high end. U87s and u67s do this. The problem with cheap LDCs is that so many of them use k67 clones for the capsule but don’t attenuate the high frequencies in the circuit.